INLS210-096 Evidence-based Information Practice

Glossary

The Fall 2005 Intermed Selected Topics.inls210.096 Glossary contains 28 terms.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A
Applicability	Questions of applicability ask whether the intervention being tested has made a measurable difference for the chosen population and in the particular setting. Often, this difference is expressed statistically. One of three important considerations in critical appraisal of research literature.
C
Case control study	An observational study in which the cases have the issue of interest (e.g. successful literature searching) in common, but the controls do not (Booth & Brice, 2004).
Case report or case study	A description of a particular service or event, often focusing on unusual aspects of the reported situation or adverse occurrences (Booth & Brice, 2004).
Case series	A description of more than one case (Booth & Brice, 2004).
Cochrane Collaborative	An international non-profit and independent organisation [that] produces and disseminates systematic reviews of healthcare interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. The Cochrane Collaboration was founded in 1993 and named for the British epidemiologist, Archie Cochrane.The major product of the Collaboration is the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews which is published quarterly as part of The Cochrane Library. (from the Cochrane site)
Cohort study	An observational study of a particular group over a period of time (Booth & Brice, 2004).
Comparison	An alternative service or action that may or may not achieve similar outcomes (Booth & Brice, 2004). One of four parts to the PICO 'well-built' question.
D
Descriptive survey	Aimed at describing certain attributes of a population, specifying associations between variables, or searching out hypotheses to be tested, but which are not primarily intended for establishing cause-and-effect relationships or actually testing hypotheses (Miller & Wilson, 1983).
E
Epidemiology	Field of medicine concerned with the study of epidemics, outbreaks of disease that affect large numbers of people. Using sophisticated statistical analyses, field investigations, and complex laboratory techniques, epidemiologists investigate the cause of a disease, its distribution (geographic, ecological, and ethnic), method of spread, and measures for control and prevention. Epidemiological investigations once concentrated on such communicable diseases as tuberculosis, influenza, and cholera, but now also encompass cancer, heart disease, and other diseases affecting large numbers of people. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press.
Evidence-based health care (EBHC)	EBHC extends the application of the principles of evidence-based medicine (see below) to all professions associated with health care, including purchasing and management (Booth & Brice, 2004).
Evidence-based Librarianship (EBL)	EBL is a means to improve the profession of librarianship by asking questions as well as finding, critically appraising, and incorporating research evidence from library science (and other disciplines) into daily practice. It also involves encouraging librarians to conduct high quality qualitative and quantitative research. (Eldredge, 2002).
Evidence-based medicine (EBM)	"The conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine requires the integration of individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research and our patient’s unique values and circumstances" (Booth & Brice, 2004).
Exploration questions	Exploration questions are generally open-ended, often beginning with 'why'. They're particularly suited to qualitative research.
H
Hedges or filters	Hedges, also called filters, are a series of search statements intended to gather subject headings and keywords that describe a particular concept (such as the research methods used) into a set. As a research tool, hedges can be saved and re-used. Depending upon how they're built, their purpose is to enhance the specificity or the comprehensiveness of search retrieval. For examples, see Module 4 .
I
Intervention	The service or planned action to be delivered to the population (Booth, p. 63 in Booth & Brice, 2004). One of four parts to the PICO 'well-built' question.
Intervention questions	Intervention questions compare different actions with respect to achievement of an intended goal (or outcome) (Crumley & Koufogiannakis, 2002).
L
Library domains	Proposed taxonomy of 6 broad and inclusive areas of library science: Reference/inquiry, Collections, Information access and retrieval, Education, Management, and Marketing/promotion. (Crumley & Koufogiannakis, 2002).
M
Meta-analysis	A method of synthesizing the data from more than one study, in order to produce a summary statistic (Booth & Brice, 2004).
O
Outcome	The ways in which the service or action can be measured to establish whether it has had a desired effect (Booth & Brice, 2004). One of four parts to the PICO 'well-built' question.
P
PICO	An acronym for Population or Problem, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome. Intended to help construct a 'well-built' question
Population	Recipients or potential beneficiaries of a service or intervention (Booth, p. 63 in Booth & Brice, 2004). One of four parts to the PICO 'well-built' question
Q
Qualitative research	A broad term describing research methodologies which generally do not depend upon statistical analysis, and which may use any of a number of different methods of inquiry, including ethnographies, interviews, historical narratives, discourse analyses, or observational descriptions.
R
Randomized control clinical trial (RCT)	In RCTs, participants are randomly allocated into an experimental group or a control group and followed over time for the variables/outcomes of interest (Booth & Brice, 2004).
Reliability	Reliability concerns the 'trustworthiness' of a study's results - in other words, whether the study would obtain the same (or similar) results if the same conditions were replicated (reproducibility). One of three important considerations in critical appraisal of research literature.
S
SPICE	A mnemonic for Setting, Perspective, Intervention, Comparison, and Evaluation. Like PICO, this serves as a model for building the ‘well-built question.’
Systematic review	Tries to answer a clear question by finding and describing all published, and if possible, unpublished work, on a topic. [It] uses explicit methods to perform a thorough literature search and critical appraisal of individual studies and uses appropriate statistical techniques to combine these valid studies (Booth & Brice, 2004).
V
Validity	Freedom from bias, one of three important considerations in critical appraisal of research literature.
W
Well-built question	Also called the 'clinical question', this is a query that's been carefully constructed to focus on the four crucial elements of PICO.